Download PRINTER`S NO. 745 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF

PRINTER'S NO.
745
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No. 81
Session of
2011
INTRODUCED BY MANN, BISHOP, BOBACK, BOYD, B. BOYLE, K. BOYLE,
BRADFORD, BRENNAN, BRIGGS, BROOKS, V. BROWN, BROWNLEE,
BUXTON, CALTAGIRONE, COHEN, CONKLIN, D. COSTA, DALEY, DAVIS,
DAY, DELOZIER, DeLUCA, DENLINGER, DiGIROLAMO, EVERETT,
FABRIZIO, FLECK, GEIST, GEORGE, GILLESPIE, GINGRICH, GOODMAN,
GRELL, HAHN, HARHAI, HARHART, HARPER, HENNESSEY, HICKERNELL,
HORNAMAN, JOSEPHS, KAVULICH, KILLION, KIRKLAND, KORTZ, KOTIK,
KULA, LONGIETTI, MAHONEY, MAJOR, MATZIE, MICOZZIE, MILLARD,
MIRABITO, MOUL, MUNDY, MURT, MUSTIO, MYERS, OBERLANDER,
M. O'BRIEN, O'NEILL, PASHINSKI, PAYNE, PAYTON, PETRI,
PICKETT, PYLE, QUIGLEY, QUINN, RAPP, RAVENSTAHL, READSHAW,
REICHLEY, ROEBUCK, ROSS, SAINATO, SANTARSIERO, SANTONI,
SCAVELLO, SONNEY, STABACK, SWANGER, THOMAS, TOEPEL, VEREB,
VULAKOVICH, WAGNER, WATSON, WHITE, YOUNGBLOOD AND HESS,
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
A RESOLUTION
Recognizing the month of March 2011 as "National Women's History
Month" in Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, From the August 18, 1587, birth of Virginia Dare,
the first child born to English parents in the Americas, through
the first decade of the 21st century, Pennsylvania women and
women nationwide have made and continue to make historic
contributions to the strength and greatness of our nation and
this Commonwealth in many recorded and unrecorded ways,
including the struggle for enfranchisement and women's rights;
and
WHEREAS, In a March 31, 1776, letter, Abigail Adams, the wife
of the second President of the United States and mother of the
sixth, wrote to her husband, "I long to hear that you have
declared an Independency -- and by the way in the new Code of
Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I
desire you would remember the Ladies, and be more generous and
favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited
power into the hands of the Husbands.... If perticular care and
attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment
a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in
which we have no voice, or Representation"; and
WHEREAS, In her letters and writings, Abigail Adams planted
the ideas that made both women and men of her time start to
think about the rights of women in a country founded on the
ideals of life, liberty and equality; and
WHEREAS, Generations later, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Pennsylvanian Lucretia Mott embodied the first
generation of women's rights activists by working to secure
women's enfranchisement; and
WHEREAS, Pennsylvania played a prominent role in the suffrage
movement with Philadelphia being a hotbed of feminist agitation;
and
WHEREAS, In 1868, Susan B. Anthony read her "Declaration of
Rights of the Women of the United States," modeled after the
Declaration of Independence, in front of Philadelphia's
Independence Hall; and
WHEREAS, It was the lesser-known suffragists, such as
Pennsylvanians Dora Kelly Lewis and Caroline Katzenstein, who
inherited the struggle from Anthony, Stanton and Mott and
oversaw the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, which gave women the right to
vote on August 18, 1920; and
WHEREAS, Other lesser-known Pennsylvania women who were
active in the suffrage movement included Ann Davies, Florence
Kelley, Ann Preston and Emma Guffey Miller; and
WHEREAS, Pennsylvania women and women nationwide paved the
way by suffering violence and threats of violence, jail and
public ridicule during their struggles to eliminate gender,
racial, social and cultural barriers to economic and political
participation; and
WHEREAS, From civil rights activists Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary
McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks to lesser-known
Elizabeth Jennings Brown who, not unlike Rosa Parks, became
frustrated with her inability to freely use privately owned
public transportation in New York City, women have long
struggled to secure equal and fair treatment for all; and
WHEREAS, The commitment of women to gender and racial
equality has resulted in the ascension of women in politics and
government; and
WHEREAS, Martha G. Speiser, Alice M. Bentley, Helen Grimes
and Sarah M. Gallaher were among a group of eight women first
elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1923;
and
WHEREAS, Crystal Bird Fauset, who helped establish the
Swarthmore College Institute of Race Relations, became the first
African-American woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania House
of Representatives, at the time representing Philadelphia's 13th
Legislative District; and
WHEREAS, In 1916, Jeanette Rankin of Montana became the first
woman to be elected to the United States House of
Representatives; in 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawaii became
the first Asian-American woman so elected; and in 1969, Shirley
Chisholm became the first African-American woman elected to the
United States House of Representatives; and
WHEREAS, Shirley Chisholm was an outspoken advocate for women
and people of color during her seven terms in Congress; and
WHEREAS, In 1959, Juanita Kidd Stout became the first
African-American woman in the nation to win election to a court
of record when she won election to the Philadelphia Municipal
Court; and
WHEREAS, Juanita Kidd Stout made history a second time in
1988 when her appointment to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made
her the first African-American woman to serve on a state supreme
court; and
WHEREAS, In 1964, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine became the
first woman nominated for President of the United States by a
major political party, and, in 1984, Geraldine Ferraro was
selected to run for Vice President, followed by Sarah Palin in
2008; and
WHEREAS, In 1990, Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as United
States Surgeon General, becoming the first woman and the first
Latina appointed to that position; and
WHEREAS, From the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, who became
the first woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the United
States Supreme Court in 1981, to the Honorable Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, who was appointed as an Associate Justice to that
court in 1993, to the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, who rose from
the public housing projects of the Bronx to nomination and
confirmation as the first Puerto Rican-American to serve as an
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 2009,
and to Sandra Schultz Newman and Debra Todd who were the first
and second women elected to Pennsylvania's highest court,
respectively, women have broken the glass ceiling in all
branches of government; and
WHEREAS, Currently, 72 women hold statewide executive offices
nationwide; and
WHEREAS, Women hold a record number 1,718 seats in state
legislatures nationwide; and
WHEREAS, In 2009, the New Hampshire State Senate was the
first state legislative chamber to have a female majority with
thirteen women and eleven men; and
WHEREAS, With her election as State Treasurer in 1988,
Katherine Baker Knoll became the first woman in this
Commonwealth to be elected to a Statewide row office and the
first woman to serve as Lieutenant Governor when she was sworn
in as Pennsylvania's 30th Lieutenant Governor in 2003; and
WHEREAS, From Madeleine Korbel Albright, the first female
Secretary of State, to Condoleezza Rice, the first AfricanAmerican woman to serve as Secretary of State, and to Hillary
Rodham Clinton, the first First Lady to win a United States
Senate seat, to run for the United States presidency and to
later serve as Secretary of State, American women continue to
reach for pinnacles of elected and political office nationally
and internationally; and
WHEREAS, In 1987, the United States Congress, encouraged by
petition of the National Women's History Project, adopted the
first resolution to recognize the entire month of March as
"Women's History Month" in order to commemorate the
accomplishments and contributions of women; and
WHEREAS, In 1998, President William J. Clinton signed the
"Women's Progress Commemoration Act" into law on the 150th
anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, the first national
congregation on the condition of women in the United States, for
the purpose of commemorating, celebrating and preserving women's
history; and
WHEREAS, American women, including many Pennsylvania women,
have been leaders, not only in securing their own rights of
suffrage, but also in the abolitionist movement, the
emancipation movement, the suffrage movement, the labor movement
and the civil and equal rights movements; and
WHEREAS, 2011 marks the 31st anniversary of the National
Women's History Project; and
WHEREAS, The National Women's History Project began with a
proclamation by President Jimmy Carter that declared the week of
March 8, 1980, as the first National Women's History Week; and
WHEREAS, The recognition of March as "Women's History Month"
has highlighted the numerous contributions of women to the
progression of American society and their position at the
forefront of movements that created a more fair and just society
for all people; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognize March
2011 as "National Women's History Month" in Pennsylvania and
invite the women, men and children of this Commonwealth to
continue to explore the many roles women played and continue to
play to secure a just and fair democracy, to explore the
contributions of women to the greatness of this Commonwealth and
the nation and to celebrate "National Women's History Month
2011" with the theme of "Our History is Our Strength."